Milestones

By Melissa August, Jeffrey Kluger, Ellin Martens, Benjamin Nugent, Sora Song and Heather Won Tesoriero

RECOVERING. JOHN MCCAIN, 65, Arizona Senator and former Republican presidential contender; from prostate surgery; in Phoenix, Ariz. McCain underwent the surgical procedure for an enlarged prostate on his birthday, Aug. 30.

ARRESTED. NIKOLAY SOLTYS, 27, Ukrainian immigrant who was among the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives; for the brutal murder of six of his family members; in Citrus Heights, Calif. Soltys' brother called police after spotting him in the family's backyard.

DIED. AALIYAH, 22, sultry R.-and-B. singer; in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Aaliyah and seven members of her crew were en route to Florida after shooting a music video when their twin-engine Cessna crashed and burst into flames shortly after takeoff. Her career, which began at age 11 with an appearance on TV's Star Search, included two platinum albums, a third album released in July and an appearance in last year's movie Romeo Must Die. The Brooklyn-born, Detroit-raised star was also set to appear in two sequels to The Matrix, and she starred in the movie version of Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned, to be released early next year. Grieving fans lined Manhattan's Upper East Side streets as the singer's coffin rode to the chapel in a horse-drawn, glass-paneled hearse. "Aaliyah had a refreshing outlook for one so young," said Gladys Knight. "With true respect for her art and her elders."

DIED. DIANA GOLDEN BROSNIHAN, 38, one-legged ski racer and Olympic gold medalist; of cancer; in Providence, R.I. Brosnihan battled cancer throughout her life, losing her right leg at the age of 12. A gifted skier, she refused to give up the slopes and went on to win 19 U.S. titles as a disabled athlete.

DIED. MICHAEL L. DERTOUZOS, 64, inventor computer visionary and longtime director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computer-science lab; of a heart attack; in Boston. Dertouzos predicted in 1976 that 1 out of 3 homes would have a PC by the mid-'90s. In 1993 he spearheaded the expansion of the World Wide Web beyond government and business uses. Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee praised Dertouzos as "a spring of enthusiasm, capability, insight and experience that drove a half-formed idea...into an international reality."

DIED. JANE GREER, 76, alluring film-noir star from the 1940s; of cancer; in Los Angeles. Greer, who was briefly married to singer Rudy Vallee, was discovered by Howard Hughes. ("He was obsessed with me," she later said.) When Greer married her second husband, Hughes reduced her film work for his studio. Greer starred as a femme fatale opposite Robert Mitchum in the 1947 film Out of the Past--and, nearly four decades later, in the remake, Against All Odds.

DIED. JOHN CHAMBERS, 78, makeup artist who created the pointy ears for Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock on Star Trek; of diabetes complications; in Los Angeles. Chambers' makeup jobs included the 1968 Planet of the Apes, for which he won an honorary Oscar, and the television shows Lost in Space and The Munsters.